The three houses facing the road are surely not monotonously similar, but their design has been so figured that the group makes a decidedly 
attractive composition and improves the immediate surroundings. The house at the left is shown in further detail on page 375. The 
three interiors at the head of page 376 are of the center house 
A Private Community 
A GROUP DESIGNED BY CHARLES BARTON KEEN THAT SUGGESTS AN ANSWER TO SOME OF OUR 
SUBURBAN HOUSING PROBLEMS—A PLAN FOR THE TREATMENT OF A GENEROUS LOT TO CONTAIN 
SEVERAL HOUSES PLACED THEREON TO THE BEST ADVANTAGE 
by Mabel Tuke Priestman 
Photographs by the Author and Others 
T HE idea of community living is an old one in Europe, and 
by no means a new one here in this country. As a rule 
much of the development of 
this idea was stimulated for 
economic or social reasons. 
Occasionally, of late years, 
we find the esthetic very 
prominent. But whatever the 
motive, various interesting 
communities have grown up 
here and abroad that are 
decidedly attractive architec¬ 
turally and very pleasant 
places to live. At the hack 
of these ideas is the single 
one to treat a generous sec¬ 
tion of the country, here often 
composed of innumerable di¬ 
verse and various blocks, as 
a single unit. As we are in¬ 
terested more in the indi¬ 
vidual homemaker’s problem, 
let us consider just what is 
often accomplished. 
A small town or town site 
is surveyed and plotted carefully. The contours are indicated — 
the principal, positive physical features. And upon this frame¬ 
work the esthetic genius and 
the practical man work to¬ 
gether. The architect or 
landscape man sees in his 
mind the whole place built 
up with similar, yet different, 
buildings. He desires its pro¬ 
file from a distance to be a 
composition with accentuated 
details and expressions. To¬ 
gether, the engineer and the 
architect place the market 
center, the residential center, 
the amusement center, and 
treat the highways so that the 
activities of the individuals 
are most pleasantly and 
economically carried on. A 
dozen associations in England 
are at work upon such ideas 
as this. They make them 
practical by controlling such 
a movement by a co-operative 
The facade away from the street is a little more homelike, less severe, probably a 
touch moreMaborate than the opposite entrance. This is the rear of the center 
house 
( 374 ) 
